Kenshin Sestinas
by Everything In Its Right Place
Summary: A complilation of sestinas written about Rurouni Kenshin. KK SM AM
1. Laundry Sestina

I put this separate from the regular poetry because it is an incredibly difficult format called a sestina. It is based on the movement of six words, and I felt it deserved its own story. I hope you enjoy this!

Please ignore the random periods. It is the only way to break the stanzas.

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**Laundry Sestina**

.

His hands moved gracefully in the soapy water.

He loved the way it felt against the sword

calluses on them, making them soft and somehow

less abrasive. He did not want

to think of himself as rough or frightening.

He just wanted to be a regular man.

.

She stood quietly watching the man.

With all his attention on the water,

it would have been quite frightening

for him to know that someone was close and his sword

was not ready. But she did not want

his attention, just to somehow

.

be able to watch him, somehow

be at peace with the small redheaded man

so utterly against himself. Even more she wanted

him to always be as relaxed as he was with the water

and laundry, leaving his ever present sword,

his ever present burden in his room where it frightened

.

only the mice, but not even enough to frighten

them away. She hoped that someday, somehow

he could forever forget that sword,

and she could help make him the man

he already was deep down, and the water

would be forgotten too, and he would want

.

for nothing. She would be everything he wanted.

She would be anything for him. Though it would frighten

him if he knew just how much she wanted to replace the water.

Guilt was chains upon him and somehow

just like them it held the tired man

back and kept the reverse bladed sword

.

in his hands. One day perhaps the sword

would rest. The woman behind him could be with him. He wanted

her to really be with him, to make him feel like a man

again instead of some demon that children told frightening

stories about. He wanted the world to forget his past somehow,

to tell stories about a man at peace scrubbing clothes in soapy water.

.

She smiled as the water dripped from his hands, and she wanted

there never to have to be a sword in them, for him not to be frightened

of her, knowing she could somehow turn a demon into a man.

.

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A/N: Well, tell me what you think! Please review!


	2. Patching Sestina

This is my take on Megumi and Sanosuke's relationship in sestina form.

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Patching Sestina

.

He was a violent, rude, and all around frustrating

man. His brown hair shot from his head like fire

reaching skyward. The character of evil that

he wore on his back was an indication of what kind

of person he was. It blazed from his white jacket, black

and foreboding. Though his friends said he had a good heart.

.

She had decided long ago that good heart

or not, there couldn't be a man more frustrating

than he was, always walking into her clinic with a black

eye or broken hand, begging for treatment while she fired

glares at him. Deep down she was really a kind

woman so she'd patch him up all the while saying that

.

he didn't deserve it and should be thankful that

she had such a generous and giving heart

to patch up a man who thought it was some kind

of game to fight and continually frustrate

her efforts to heal him. She was truly a fiery

woman with dark red lips and long black

.

hair and mahogany eyes that turned just as black

when she yelled at the recklessly violent man for being just that

a recklessly violent man, the worst kind, the one with fire

in his eyes and a smile on his face and a big open heart.

When she looked at him, she was incredibly frustrated.

How dare he be so gentle with her? How dare he be so kind?

.

How dare she let herself be smitten with that kind

of a man? She did not want to see him in her office with black

and blue bruises and cuts marking up his frustratingly

perfect body. She wanted to see him in the bed that

she slept in each night all alone. Her heart

ached when she saw rock torn skin or fire

.

burned lips. She wanted to yell, _Let me be your fire!_

Let me burn you! Let me cool you! I'll be any kind

of woman you want! But she kept the words in her heart.

She lied to the redheaded man she once loved and his black

haired sweetheart. She said she could never be with that

kind of man, that he was rude and violent and all around frustrating.

.

And he was frustrating because he was sweet and gentle and kind

and his touch set her on fire and watching the black

character of evil that she saw as he walked away reminded her just how very hard it was to deny the heart.

.

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A/N: Check out my other sestinas and please review!


	3. Seventeen Reasons

All the reasons why Kenshin loves Kaoru, in sestina form.

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Seventeen Reasons

.

There are seventeen reasons why I love you.

Seventeen reasons why my heart beats wildly and I can't breathe

when I see your face. I love you because your smile

is bright and gives me hope, even when I have nothing to hope for.

I love you because you smell of jasmine flowers,

because of all the things you must know,

.

and because of all the things you pretend not to know

for my sake. And I love you because of the way you

can mess up miso soup and the simplest flower

tea and the nervousness with which you serve it, breathing

slowly to swallow your fear. I know you need approval, for

every time I tell you I like it, you flash that beautiful smile.

.

I love you because seeing you makes me smile.

There is no one else in this world who knows

how to do that like you, no one else who I smile for.

At least, not the way I smile for you.

That smile comes from an emotion that steals my breath

and makes me ache. I love that you do not wear flowers

.

in your hair. You really don't need flowers.

They take away from your bright eyes, that sweet smile.

They keep me from really being able to breathe

in the smell of jasmine and sweat that I know

you got from training, from teaching the boy you

let in, the boy you gave something to strive for.

.

I love you because you gave me something to live for.

You know just how many of the flower

adorned graves I put there. I told you what I was and you,

you just said you wanted me. With an undeserved smile,

you let me stay; you let me be a part of your life like you already knew.

I love you because of the way you breathe

.

slowly and count to ten to try and clam your anger. Breathing

never works, but you do it every time anyway for

you know of nothing better. I love you because you don't know

what I know. Because you stop on busy streets to smell flowers.

Because you can see behind my empty smile.

Because of the way your eyes become fierce and determined when you

.

hold a sword. I love you because you always have something to reach for.

I love you because you allow me to breathe and don't crush me like some forgotten flower.

And your beautiful smile, innocent and full of life, is why I can never let you know.

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A/N: Please review. Does anyone have any requests? Perhaps a list of six words to use?


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